1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a storage device with a parallel interface connector, and more particularly to a storage device compatible with both parallel and serial interfaces.
2. Description of the Related Art
Standards for serial AT Attachment (ATA) interfaces have recently been drawn up. Like conventional ATA interfaces (i.e., parallel ATA interfaces), serial ATA interfaces are used between host systems and peripheral devices represented by such storage devices as hard disk drives. Conventional storage devices are suitable only for one kind of ATA interface—either parallel or serial. Therefore, some storage devices may not be connectable to certain host systems.
Utility Model No. 3093782 discloses a technique (hereinafter referred to as “the prior art”) related to a system (interface connector) for connecting a storage device to a host system. The prior art enables any storage device to be connected to any host system, regardless of whether the device is designed for a parallel ATA interface (parallel interface) or a serial ATA interface (serial interface). In this case, however, the host system must be compatible with both parallel and serial ATA interfaces. In other words, storage devices suitable only for parallel ATA interfaces cannot be connected to host systems suitable only for serial ATA interfaces. Similarly, storage devices suitable only for serial ATA interfaces cannot be connected to host systems suitable only for parallel ATA interfaces.